(Adds details on negotiation)
MEXICO CITY, March 25 (Reuters) - No deal has yet been
reached on the future of a lucrative shared oil deposit as a
deadline expired on Thursday, but Mexican state-run Pemex and
Talos Energy will keep talking, three sources with direct
knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
How to develop the nearly 700 million barrel offshore Zama
discovery, which was made by the Talos-led consortium in 2017,
has been the subject of sensitive talks during a three-month
extension provided by the energy ministry late last year.
But negotiators wrangling over operational details including
who will run the project, one of the largest private oil finds
in Mexico in decades, did not reach a deal as the deadline
passed, the sources said.
Pemex's media office and the energy ministry did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Talos representative declined to comment.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Pemex could
consider an agreement under which Talos is the project operator
if the U.S.-based company accepted certain conditions.
Two of the sources said an announcement will be made
tomorrow, but it was unclear whether or not a formal extension
to the talks would be given by the energy ministry.
The other members of the Talos-led consortium are Germany's
Wintershall Dea and Britain's Premier Oil.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia, Adriana Barrera and Ana
Isabel Martinez; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Grant McCool)
